Community Bible Reading

We as a church are restarting the Community Bible Reading (CBR) plan in January 2019 and invite you to join in.

CBR is a helpful tool to help you experience intimacy with God each day through reading his word and prayerfully responding to him. It’s also a project to help the whole church engage with the bible in community and see how God speaks to us on a daily basis.

Why are we doing it?

Regular routine is difficult:

Many of us struggle to read the bible and pray on a regular basis. As a result, our desire for God is muted and we feel disconnected from Him.

God speaks through his Word:

Reading the bible is not solely an intellectual exercise, but as we prayerfully read, we experience God speaking to us and changing our hearts.

Rituals help relationship:

As in any relationship, the more time you spend with someone, the better your relationship. This daily ritual helps you follow Jesus each day.

What does success look like?

We hope that many of us will have the joy of God speaking, challenging and encouraging us through His word each day and experience the heart change that comes from that. We also hope that we’ll grow in our understanding of the bible and how it all fits together.

How do we do it?

Start by surrendering to God in prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to speak to you through His word. After that CBR has 3 parts:

Reading:

Each weekday there’s a New Testament chapter and an Old Testament chapter to read. We suggest just reading the New Testament each day unless you feel like you have the time to do both. There’s a Psalm to read on the weekend.

Praying:

You then respond in prayer to what you’ve read, following the ACTS framework: Adoration - Confession - Thanksgiving - Supplication. Use each of these to structure your prayers. Either write your prayers in the journal (“pray through your pen”) or pray them out to God.

Sharing:

“Prepare for Gospel Community” by reflecting on how God has impacted you through the passage. You could share with your Life Group what God is saying to you, for example, how you feel convicted, encouraged or challenged.

You can take part either online via the app (iOS or Android) and website, which provides a reading from the ESV bible each day, or—analogue style—by using the CBR journal (or both!). The journal itself offers a daily reading schedule and a diary to help guide us through surrendering and listening to God, prayer and preparing for gospel community.

New CBR journals will be available for sale on Sundays after both services. Just grab someone from the welcome team and they will be able to assist you.